


glass slippers

by orphan_account



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombies, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-19
Updated: 2016-04-19
Packaged: 2018-06-03 07:22:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6601975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Non-linear snippets from a zombie au I had planned a long time ago, but never ended up fleshing out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. jump, they said

**Author's Note:**

> Totally inspired by the app Zombies, Run! Not of a lot of background info is needed for these, even though I had all the politics planned out and everything (as if I was going to write it all) (laughs). I thought maybe I should finally share it anyway.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inigo used to be Ferox's fastest runner, but things happened.

_“Kid? Can you hear me clearly? Head west, the fuckers are closing in on you from everywhere else!”_

Inigo curses as he fixes his headset and makes sure the medicine he’d picked up is snug in his bag before sprinting as fast as he can to what looks like an abandoned apartment complex.

_“That’s good, you’re doing fine, kid. With that speed, you’ll lose them in no time. …Wait. What—shit! Shit, kid, that building’s crawling with zombies. You’re surrounded!”_

Even if Basilio didn’t say anything, Inigo can already see and hear the undead coming after him from the sides. At this point, he’ll be done for in minute, unless…

“Worth a shot,” he mutters under his breath and scrambles up the stairs on the side of the wall. He doesn’t dare look back to see if the zombies are following him, counting on them being clumsy and slow.

“ _Great idea, kid! See that’s why they should leave this planning stuff to Flavia.”_

Inigo chuckles, thinking he should definitely tell Flavia about that when he gets back.

_“Old Basilio would be better out there on the field with you—no… Good gods, climb faster!”_

The groaning is getting louder and Inigo’s heart seizes when he realizes how close the zombies are to catching him.

_“Fuck, how are they so quick? They’re right behind you! As soon as you get onto the roof, run to the other side and jump to the next roof over!”_

The roof is close, so through a burst of adrenaline Inigo pushes himself from the ladder and launches onto the roof with a few feet left. He uses that momentum to sprint to the edge in four huge leaps and jumps without a second thought.

Too late, he sees that the other side is littered with torn pipes and broken glass. All he feels upon landing is the impact shuddering through his body and a searing pain in his right eye.

“ _Haha! That was amazing, kid! I don’t think even I could make that jump, let alone the zombies. …Kid? Shit, what happened? Damn these shitty cameras, I can barely see anything!”_

Inigo clutches at the side of his face, sobbing as he feels hot blood run down his hands and arms. He heaves himself up, swaying a bit and hobbling toward the stairs on the other side.

_“Your eye! How bad is it? Gods, even I can tell that’s a hell of a lot of blood. Damn it, can you make it back? I’ll send our fastest runner out to get you, and don’t worry, you lost the zombs. You’re almost there… Shit, kid, we don’t want to lose you too.”_

 He makes it down the stairs, almost losing his footing and falling twice. All he can think is that he doesn’t want to die alone, not here. Olivia would cry, and he still hadn’t ever danced for her…

Lon’qu’s running form arrives far sooner than Inigo expects him to.

“You’re lucky we’re not being followed right now,” Lon’qu says shortly as he quickly wraps a rag around his head and lifts him onto his shoulders.

_“Good, he made it. You’ll be okay, kid. Come home.”_

“Don’t sleep,” Inigo hears Lon’qu’s voice say. “Basilio said you hit your head.” Some other words might have been exchanged, but by now Inigo’s head is swimming in mud and, in the end, he isn’t even sure if he’s awake when they make it back to Ferox.


	2. radio

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flash forward some time, after Virion had to take his people to Ferox. Minerva is a Rottweiler, by the way.

Gerome sprints away from the burning building that New Plegia had delegated as a meeting point. A day ago, they had contacted Ferox Township under peaceful terms, claiming they wanted to trade supplies and information. Inigo had been hesitant, but in the end they had decided to send Gerome anyway. Of course, upon arriving, the place exploded. Gerome wasn’t surprised.

 _“It was a trap! I knew it! I knew we couldn’t trust them!”_ Inigo’s voice is shrill in his headset, and it sounds like he’s scrambling around the room. _“Gerome, I can’t see you on my cameras, there’s too much smoke. You’re fine, right? I mean, it’s you, they can’t get you with something like that. But that’s fire’s gonna be a beacon for zombies, so get out of there quick!”_

Through the crackling and falling debris, Gerome starts hearing gunshots.

_“Are they—they’re shooting at you! Why those… You can’t head back the way you came, Gerome! There’s a forest a few paces away, but it’s crawling with zombs. They probably won’t follow you there, but…blast, I can’t see you at all!”_

_You won’t be able to see me in the forest either,_ Gerome thinks. _But neither will they._  With a split second decision, he runs straight into the forest. No zombies in sight yet, and the shooting soon stopped.

_“They’re heading back…that means you ran into the forest, right? The smoke’s clearing, and I don’t see a—a body…”_

Gerome almost rolls his eyes, because seriously, the little voice in headset always worries too much. He takes out the baseball bat he’d slung over his hip (guns were deemed inappropriate for a “diplomatic” meeting”) and continues to run.

_“Gerome…if you can hear me, these woods are the same ones that you can see from Ferox’s east wall. Assuming you went straight when you entered them, you should come out on the other end if you curve a little to the right when you run… But this forest is at least five miles long, and I have no idea what you can expect in there.”_

Zombies are a given, Gerome notes as one lops toward him. He takes off its head with one swing of his bat. Inigo really shouldn’t worry so much.

_“Please by safe…that’s assuming it’s still you with this headset and not something less…alive.”_

He jumps over a fallen tree trunk, carefully avoiding twigs so he doesn’t make more noise than he already is.

_“Gerome…”_

“What,” he finds himself saying despite himself, even though he knows the other can’t hear him.

_“It’s getting dark…they’re saying that if you don’t come back before the sun sets, we’re going to have to close the gates.”_

About half an hour passed in silence, but he could tell Inigo was still there by the occasional rustling of papers and squeak of his chair. He was probably trying to see if he could catch him on a camera. Unfortunately, the trees are thick and even Gerome can barely see where he’s going.

At least years of traveling with Minerva has given him a general sense of direction.

 _“You’re coming back, right?”_ Inigo’s voice suddenly comes, softer than ever. _“It…wouldn’t even be my first time losing a runner. I hate it. Some nights, I can’t sleep because all I can think about is how maybe there would be more people alive if I was better at my job. And I just don’t… I consider us friends, Gerome.”_

Gerome isn’t sure what to make of all of that.

_“Well, unless you’re dead. And especially not if you’re a zombie. Sorry, I’m rambling, aren’t I?”_

Not more than he usually is, Gerome muses as he ducks behind trees.

_“I hope you don’t mind if I talk as if you can hear me right now. I think it would make me feel better.”_

There’s no way for Gerome to refuse, but even if there was, he’s pretty certain his sentiments would be ignored.

_“I think this apocalypse has made all of us a little messed up in the head. Before all of this, I was probably the kind of guy you’d hate. …Yeah, I’d probably drive you crazy. I used to be shyer than Olivia, but then I found that talking to girls gave me more confidence. …I guess that wasn’t fair to the girls, either. Anyway, it was tiring. Do you think that, if I’d met you earlier, I wouldn’t have needed any of that? You’d probably have glared some sense into me.”_

Gerome hates abstract speculation. That was for dreamers like Inigo. What does he expect him to say? There isn’t any point in trying to figure what could have been done in the past.

_“Did you know I wanted to be a dancer, before? Well, that was…also before I lost my eye. I just…I just want to get out there and run, but that’s over for me, isn’t it? Sometimes I wonder if my eye could have been saved if this had happened when there were still working hospitals. But I guess you’d say that’s silly, because I wouldn’t have been jumping over roofs to escape zombies if this was before. That’s how it happened, by the way._

_“… I don’t like talking about it. Olivia says that I wouldn’t eat for days afterwards, but I don’t remember anything. And afterwards, I felt like…I was already dead. Even though I survived the zombies, I couldn’t run properly anymore, so what use would I be if I was chased again? And I hate seeing people pity me when they see this gigantic eye patch. But Basilio’s a warmhearted guy, even if he doesn’t like showing it. Kind of like you, but in the opposite extreme, I guess. He let me have the post up here in the comm tower. He wanted to be out on the field, anyway. The eyepatch thing doesn’t slow him down as much.”_

Inigo talks into his ear until hours later, when the sun is completely and all Gerome has to guide him is the slivers of moonlight filtering through the trees. He hasn’t seen any packs of zombies, as most of them have come in manageable numbers. But Inigo’s voice is steadily getting more frantic.

_“15 minutes. They’re giving me 15 minutes until they’re closing the gates. We’ve already had a few zombies try to get in, and we’ve got Basilio and Flavia on watch with guns. Cherche’s worried. She and I are the only ones who think you’re still alive. You’re alive, right? Please be alive… I don’t want to lose another runner. Please…”_

Gerome thinks he sees the edge of the forest, finally. He picks up the pace and sprints toward the clearing.

_“I mean, for all I know, I could be talking to a mindless zombie right now, but…I—I—don’t want to believe that, please, Gerome, please come home...”_

Is he crying?

_“Come home… Gerome…”_

He finally, finally breaks through the trees and runs as fast as he can toward the gate. He hears Flavia’s shouts and Basilio laugh, both of them waving him over.

_“What’re they yelling about—oh. Oh my God. Is that—Gerome, you’re—“_

It sounds like Inigo has thrown his headset to the ground and run out of the room, knocking over his chair on the way.

He’s in the gate now. Basilio congratulates him and Flavia gives him a relieved smile before she goes and waves for the gate to be lowered.

Gerome barely has a chance to catch his breath before he hears a shout and a body barrels right into him.

It’s Inigo, and he’s sobbing his eye out into his sweaty shirt.

“You’re alive!” he hiccups. “You’re alive, you’re here, I knew it, oh my _God_ , I was so _worried_ …”

Gerome awkwardly pats him on the back. He’s shaking, and Gerome has no idea what do with him.

“You…you stink, you should go take a bath right away, you d-dolt. Use my hot water, you deserve it.”

“Er…”

“Ah, sorry, you probably want to see your family right now, not me,” Inigo sniffs and he wipes his face with his sleeve. “I’m…I’m glad you’re back.” He gives him a watery smile before running off, sort of crookedly and almost running into a pole on his way.

Minerva’s howling happily. Cherche, on the other hand, is smiling at Inigo’s retreating form and Gerome doesn’t really like the look she gives him; like she _knows_ something. He doesn’t even want to guess what.

She gives him a light pat on the shoulder. “He didn’t move from that room for five hours, you know.”

Gerome pointedly ignores her and ruffles Minerva’s fur.

“He didn’t eat, either,” she continues. “You go shower, but make it quick. I made a late dinner for two.”


	3. gerome's gift

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm pretty sure this would be a lot more complicated in practice but I thought it was romantic at the time,

The runners are all home and the work day is over. Inigo’s just about to leave the comm room when he runs into Gerome, standing there unannounced like he’s wont to.

Inigo smiles up at him. “Hi, Gerome! What’s up?”

Gerome’s as serious as he always is, like Inigo’s sunny exterior has no effect on him, but he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a glass sphere.

“I know you hate that eye patch,” he begins, and Inigo’s eye widens when he realizes what it is. “You’re always pulling at it, and you said the other day you don’t like how it looks…”

“I—” Inigo stammers, because what kind of social protocol applied to situations like this? “You…”

“It was inside one of the broken shops I ran through today. So I thought, maybe Laurent knows something…” Gerome hesitates through his explanation, and he may be a little embarrassed to be seen doing something simply for the sake of being _nice_ to someone, but he’s sincere and the look on his face makes Inigo’s heart hurt. “Wasn’t sure what color would be best so…”

“That—I don’t—”

“Please just take it.”

Inigo gingerly takes the glass eye from Gerome’s palm and wraps his hands around it like it’s precious. “Thank you,” he says quietly. “This is the nicest thing anyone’s ever given me.”

The other man is definitely embarrassed now, but he actually sort of _smiles_ and Inigo can feel his heart beating out of his chest.

When he goes to see Laurent, he’s beaming.


End file.
